The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

ADAP-88: a computer program for nonlinear earthquake analysis of concrete arch dams

Fenves, Gregory L.; Mojtahedi, Soheil; Reimer, Richard B.

UCB/EERC-89/12, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 1989-11, 118 pages (555.6/F45/1989)

A nonlinear joint element is implemented in a finite element computer program and is used to model the opening and closing of contraction joints in concrete arch dams. The joint element is combined with shell, solid, and fluid finite elements to model a complete arch dam system. Special consideration is given to resolving the stress distribution near the joints by using a refined mesh of solid elements. A numerical procedure for solving the equations of motion recognizes that the nonlinearity in the model is restricted to the joints. The monoliths between contraction joint elements are modeled as linear substructures: this provides a significant reduction of computation in the iterative solution of the nonlinear equations of motion.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/EERC/EERC-89-12.pdf (9 MB)